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replied in writing through her attorneys, “Cracked crab at the Whites’.” Two hours later, after a break in the interview, Trujillo returned to the same question, and this time Patsy remembered that her daughter had eaten cracked crab at the Whites’. The detectives now had her locked into an answer in conflict with the findings of the autopsy. Asked whether anyone in the family had snacked after they returned home that night, Patsy said she knew nothing about any food eaten by anyone. The detectives did not reveal that fingerprints—hers and Burke’s—had been found on the bowl containing pineapple on the dining room table. Later they speculated that the only explanation for the discrepancy was that the children—either alone or together—had eaten the pineapple without their mother’s knowledge and that Patsy’s fingerprint dated from an earlier time. It was also possible, however, that Patsy now knew about the pineapple—the information had been released in the edited autopsy report—and thought it was better that she stick with her earlier written statement.

The detectives asked Patsy what happened after she found the ransom note—whether she turned the light on in Burke’s room when she went to look for JonBenét. She didn’t remember. Did she awaken Burke to find out if he knew where his sister was, or did he awaken by himself? No, she was sure he stayed asleep until John got him up for the move to the Whites’. The detectives asked her the same question several times during the six hours, and each time she gave the same story, though it conflicted with what they had just discovered on the enhanced audio tape of Patsy’s call to 911.

Since fibers had been found on the duct tape, JonBenét’s body, the white blanket, and the floor of the wine cellar; Patsy was asked about her clothes. She said that she wore the same red sweater, black slacks, and jacket on Christmas night and the morning after. She said she had put them on that morning because they were lying where she had left them the night before. The police thought it was odd that a well-groomed woman like Patsy would wear the same clothes two days in a row—they had understood that she hardly ever left her bedroom without fresh makeup.

Patsy was asked about the ransom note. How did she feel about the fact that some handwriting experts believed she wrote it? She didn’t know that to be the case, she said. What about the fact that her pen was used to write it? She replied: “It was?” Thomas asked why the handwriting looked like hers. “It looks that way because it may have been written by a woman,” she answered.

“I did the best I could. I just put her to bed,” Patsy said in answer to one question. “I just don’t know that,” she would say again and again.

There were several breaks before lunch, during which Hofstrom allowed Patsy and her attorneys to use his office. Thomas worried that they were telling John Ramsey what his wife was being asked, to make sure that his story would not be at odds with hers.

After the first break, she was asked if she would take a polygraph. “I’ll take ten of them,” Patsy replied. Later, when the detectives requested that a test be administered to her, Patsy’s attorney and Pete Hofstrom were unable to agree on the terms.

In the afternoon, Thomas asked Patsy if she or any member of her family had purchased duct tape or cord prior to the murder. They knew she might have bought tape at Home Depot in Athens, Georgia, or at McGuckin Hardware in Boulder. Patsy couldn’t remember buying such items. She’d have no need for them, she said. Her answer was no.

Patsy was shown a photo of the flashlight that had been found on the kitchen counter—which detectives surmised might have been used in the blow to JonBenét’s head. Patsy said the family owned one like it but she couldn’t tell from the photo if this was the one.

Patsy was not only vague, Thomas felt, but coy and charming, even flirtatious, her eyes wide and her head cocked to one side. Thomas, who had grown up in the South, was familiar with the demeanor. Thomas knew better than to be influenced by it. He was